Heartbeat
by AutumnsFey
Summary: Wife and husband. Two skies. Chained together by the demands of foolish old men, forced to endure a marriage that wasn't wanted bei either. It went from bad, to acceptable, to worse … and in the end? There are choices to make that will change everything. Good or bad? A matter of perspective. Fem!Tsuna.


_**At first, there had been nothing but resentment between them.**_

_They had never met before. They were complete opposites. And while they both hated their respective father's, the very people who were forcing them into this union, it was a fact that anything those two men deemed a good thing naturally was to be abhorred by their children._

_So … one could definitely say that their forced marriage began under very bad circumstances._

_The wedding had been horrendous._

_Their wedding night even more so._

_Congratulations?_

_Fuck you._

* * *

_**It didn't get better.**_

_(It did.)_

_It never got better._

_(It tried to.)_

_It couldn't get better._

_(It could and would.)_

_How could it get better when he couldn't even look at her without throwing slurs at her face?_

_(The how would turn out to be steeped in tragedy, but better it would get, for both their sakes.)_

* * *

**Xanxus di Vongola was an acerbic violent bastard who hated his father with the passion of a thousand** burning suns. He tried to get all the distance between himself and the old fucker that he could, but the old man wouldn't allow it, and this latest kick in the balls?

He couldn't avoid it.

And he certainly had tried to.

Either he married that trash his father had chosen and controlled Vongola as the husband of the future Vongola Decima – a helpless simpleton who couldn't ever be more than a useless puppet - or a freaking helpless clueless civilian girl would lead his family into ruin.

The family he killed for.

There really had been no choice.

And he hated his old man, the fool Iemitsu and that man's brat so fucking much for it.

* * *

**Sawada Tsunayuki was a shy introverted young woman who hated her absentee father like she had never hated anyone else in her life. **Because for most of her life, she had actually tried to ignore his very existence and answered questions about his whereabouts with countless variants of 'He is permanently out of the picture', not caring if other's gave her condolences for her very much alive father; to her, he had been dead since she had been five. However, the old man just had to try, again and again, to fuck up her life, didn't he?

And this time, she couldn't avoid bearing the burden of his mistakes.

Either she married the adopted son of her grandfather-figure – and ewe, that sounded horribly incestuous even in her mind, regardless of the fact that they had no blood relation – or her mother and the few loyal friends she had so painstakingly made; everyone she called precious would pay for it with their lifes ... why the hell did her father have to be a fucking Mafia Criminal?

She really had no choice – give in, and save her loved ones, or petulantly stick it to one single man, and lose even more than she had any right to bargain with.

She really hated her father, her grandfather-figure and his damn son, who just couldn't have managed to be already married at his age.

* * *

**They met for the first time in front of the altar.**

She was a vision in white, her golden-brown hair pinned up elaborately, exposing the naked skin of her back, the satin hugging her delicate frame like a second skin.

She was short – nearly two heads shorter than him, even in her high-heeled shoes. And her eyes.

Her golden eyes stared at him with overwhelming dread and the seething fire of resentment.

For just one second, he was amused despite himself.

Maybe he wouldn't be the only one suffering in this sham of a marriage.

* * *

**The first time she laid eyes on him, he stood in front of the altar.**

He was dressed in a traditional black suit, broad-shouldered and leanly muscular, his back straight and uncompromising. He was tall, so so tall, and she had to stretch her neck to lock up at him.

His face was angular, and her eyes couldn't help but to trace the faded scares embedded into the tan skin. His eyes – they were a startling red colour.

A colour that was accompanied with a glare, which screamed murder at her.

For just one second, she was enchanted.

Beauty and the Beast indeed, maybe this would turn out to be … just that kind of interesting.

(No one ever said that she had a good taste in man.)

* * *

**Their wedding night …**

There were screams.

There were tears.

There was passion.

There were orgasms.

And there was …

… there was blood and pain.

(There were no kisses.

No gentle touches.

No careful preparation.

No amount of consideration.)

They slept on with their backs turned to each other.

Neither actually sleeping.

* * *

_**(It set a trend.)**_

* * *

**Xanxus would maintain that their marriage didn't get better.**

That he hated her as much as he had loathed her when he had first heard of her.

Tsunayuki would resolutely argue that their marriage did get a bit better - slowly.

They didn't hate each other anymore, had even grown fond of the other, and at least in her case, a bit more than merely fond.

It took work, and the stones in their way nearly broke their necks more than once, but at the end of the day, they were alive.

* * *

_**(Her mother had giggled over the phone, so happy that her baby girl had a crush on her husband and was actually starting to fall in love with the gruff man Nana had only seen pictures of.**_

_The arranged marriage had been the last nail in the coffin of the older woman's own marriage; she had forgiven Iemitsu a lot of things over the years, things few other woman – if any, actually - would have been able to swallow and keep smiling. She had done it for her baby girl – not because Tsuna loved her father, no, there had been little but disgust in Tsuna's heart for her own father since a very young age - but because Nana didn't want her daughter to ever have to beg for anything, and a man like Iemitsu … she didn't even know why she had fallen in love with him once upon a time._

_But she knew that it had been her greatest mistake._

_The only good thing that had come from years of suffering had been her child. And even then ..._

_Sometimes she wondered if Tsuna would agree with her._

_Nana only knew that the defeat in her baby girls eyes on her own wedding day, a day Nana hadn't even been allowed to attend, had been the last push she needed to get a divorce._

_Hopefully, Tsuna-chan would have a happier marriage …_

_If the last few years were any indication, her daughter and son-in-law at least had the potential to make it work._

_She prayed for them.)_

* * *

**The truly ironic piece de resistance?**

On their own, they could have made it work relatively smoothly. Not without problems, but one step at a time, they would have realized that what they felt for each other was love, and their relationship would have slowly turned into a loving one – realized by both.

They already were on the right road to happiness.

But every bit of progress was destroyed when their father's once more, after three thankfully silent years of peace and acclimating to each other, had chosen to darken their doorstep with a single unavoidable demand.

It was time for an heir to be conceived.

* * *

_**(Xanxus was furious.**__He was – there was no word in Italian to describe the absolute fury he felt, and the betrayal that bitterly settled into his heart as his wife stayed silent.)_

* * *

_**(Tsuna was devastated.**__She wasn't against a child, no, she wanted it, very much so, but not like this – not with her husband looking at her like she was a traitorous bitch.)_

* * *

**He hadn't been this cruel to her since their wedding night.**

For four months, she bled, night after night, he made her bleed. Her tears suffocated in her pillow, a gaping distance ripped open between, one that had slowly waned over the last three years.

After four months, she was confirmed as pregnant.

Her husband spat on the ground and walked away.

Tsuna did what she had done for weeks now; she cried.

That night, she slept in a guest room.

She didn't return to their bedroom.

At all.

* * *

**It wasn't an easy pregnancy.**

Neither emotionally nor physically.

Oh, Tsuna did everything her doctor told her to: she ate what and when he had prescribed her to, took her vitamins and did the exercises she was supposed to do. It didn't stop the terrible morning sickness, which plagued her for the first five months, and made actually gaining weight near impossible. It also didn't help with the sleeplessness, the anxiety attacks and burst of depression.

Her hips hadn't stopped hurting since she started her second trimester, and the back pain she had started too experience at the mark of her fifth month had made laying down or standing up for long periods of time unbearable.

Taking into account that her husband shined with absence – just as her own fuck-up of a father had done during her life – or, alternatively when he couldn't avoid her, had nothing but cruel jabs and hateful curses left for her – wasn't helpful. At all.

They were both Skies, they had started to harmonize to each other's Deathperation Flames, and to have that familiarity ripped from her at such a crucial time where she needed it the most – where the life growing in her was desperately dependent on it? Was crippling.

… not life. Lives.

Twins.

Not that Xanxus cared. Or knew.

He had made his opinion clear.

Tsuna caressed her baby belly, feeling the lower baby kick in response. Even if her husband hated her …

She would fight for her children.

Against everyone.

Even him.

(No matter the odds.)

* * *

_**(Tsunayuki di Vongola had always been of a weak constitution, something she had sadly inherited from her mother**__ – __but just as she had inherited her mother's weakness, she had also inherited the woman's greatest strength: A spin of steel where it concerned the well-being of her children, and the ruthlessness to manipulate and outmanoeuvre those who stood in-between her babies and their happiness._

_Xanxus had seen moments of that spin, had seen her carefully concealed cruelty when she destroyed those who stood in the way of what she wanted; always acting the helpless damsel, but her eyes …_

_Her eyes had always fascinated him the most, since their wedding day._

_She was a puzzle in contradictions, and he should have taken the time to learn how to undo her._

… _hopefully arrogance wasn't inherited …_

_Tsuna could only hope for her babies.)_

* * *

**If only he had …**

If only he had.

Hindsight, as they say, was always twenty-twenty.

* * *

**Tsuna knew that her body was weak.**

Doctor Shamal had been very clear that because of that weakness, he was treating her as an at risk pregnancy from the start. She had been told to adhere strictly to the instructions given, and that everything would be fine if she did.

Honestly, Tsuna called bullshit.

She had felt miserable from the beginning, but the further along she got, the worse did she feel. And no matter how much she wanted to believe Shamal, she couldn't dwell in delusions.

Not with a grandfatherly figure like Timoteo di Vongola.

Not with a father like Sawada Iemitsu.

And certainly not with a husband and father-to-be like Xanxus di Vongola.

What came first and foremost, was the emotional and physical health and happiness of her children, and should this pregnancy spell her death, well, she may not be there to see them grow up strong, independent and fucking happy, but she sure as hell would ensure it.

Hiding in the shadows, watching the world around her and learning about the people she was supposed to consider hers – it hadn't given her much reason to like the Criminals she was now surrounded by, but it sure gave her a good idea of what would happen to her children if she didn't take initiative now.

First step: She made sure that Shamal had a legally approved document proclaiming that should a choice be called, and should she prove to be unable to make it, that her children took precedence over Tsuna's own health and life – if only one, parent or child, could be saved, it would be the child.

Second step: She put her monetary savings, and whatever the hell else she legally could get her fingers on, into a hedge fund for her babies, that could only be accessed with her mother's personal authorisation.

Step three?

Step three was to assure her that Xanxus would take good care of her babies. The way he had been acting, she couldn't be sure of anything. And the only way to force him into acting like a father – a good father, not the fucked-up life size models their paternal ones had been and still proved to be?

Blackmail.

She had made copies of every documented crime that she could find, hid them in various places around the world and made sure that the information would be released if her babies weren't happy and healthy. She had a letter, informing him of this, in her bedside drawer (A letter, her ultrasound pictures … and an USB drive with the most beautiful sound she had ever heard).

There wasn't anything more she could do for her babies …

Tsuna only hoped it would be enough.

* * *

_**(Contemplating ones one mortality –**__contemplating the very real and acute fact that you could die in the near future …_

_It was frightening._

_Tsuna was really afraid._

_She wanted to live.)_

* * *

**Since the moment that Timoteo di Vongola had taken him in**, had taken a dirty hungry child from the streets to give him a warm home, Xanxus had been a puppet. He hadn't known it at the time, still so embittered in the belief that if only he fought hard enough, was stubborn enough, if he became the best, his father would love him, would be proud of him … but all he had ever been to the old man was another Sky, as wrathful as he may be, groomed under Vongola's thumb; another loyal dog to take over a branch not many could stand to even acknowledge.

Xanxus never had a chance of more.

The marriage to Iemitsu's daughter was only another hit in a long series of devastating blows that seemed to come whenever he managed to get up again. But he had thought that maybe, just maybe, the girl and he at least would be able to stand each other.

And they managed.

Three years of fighting and compromising, and that girl had earned her name.

She was Tsuna.

His Tsuna.

Finally someone who belonged to him. Not that he was turning sentimental or anything, and he sure as hell wouldn't admit to any feelings on his side, but she was his in a way she wouldn't ever be someone else's, they had come to an accord and actually started to get along.

The most common factor they had, which they had often discussed deep into the night with a nice glass of wine, was their shitty fathers. They loathed them both.

So yeah, they had fought and compromised for nearly three years now, and come to a sort of understanding.

But then …

Then she had chosen to stay silent. A meek little thing, once more, not speaking up against her father. All the small instances which had made Xanxus grudgingly give her a glimmer of respect, the moments he had seen her spin her web of manipulation, when she had proven to be more than a fool … he couldn't believe he had ever fallen for her charade.

Somehow, he had fallen for her lies. She had made him … mellow.

Only to stab him in the back, siding with their fathers – because keeping her silence was as good as agreeing with them.

And he was fucking done with her.

Let the little trash deal with her own mistakes.

* * *

**Once it had been confirmed that the little trash had been knocked up, **Xanxus kept out of her way – he didn't need the reminder of his own fucking moment of confusion; emotions made you weak, and sentiment a fool. She hadn't managed to do either, but in the deepest parts of his mind, he knew that she had been way too close to comfort.

So he kept his distance, and if he couldn't, he let her know exactly how much he detested her presence.

She had made her choice; let her reap the consequences of that.

He didn't care for traitors.

* * *

_**He didn't care at all.**_

_(… about the way she lost too much weight, too rapidly. He certainly didn't look up morning sickness, or watched her whenever she wasn't looking in his direction._

_And when he turned his head before she could meet his eyes, it was because he was done with the little trash._

_Not because he couldn't stand the fear churning in his belly for that frail little thing.)_

* * *

**Xanxus desired nothing more than to polish Iemitsu's smug grin with his fists and whip the fuckers smirk right of that ugly mug.**

If someone had been ordered to impregnate Xanxus baby girl …

Xanxus thought he couldn't be more disgusted with the foolish lion. He was wrong. What kind of father took delight in forcing his own daughter to marry and carry a child?

His fists were too good.

Xanxus hands twitch to the holsters at his side.

He really wanted to put a hole in the fools face.

* * *

_**He didn't care at all.**_

_(… when she seemed to be constantly in pain, when it seemed as if the painkillers she was allowed in her condition didn't do shit. So what if she had dizzy spells and even fainted?_

_It wasn't his problem._

_He certainly didn't tell his people to keep a close eye on her.)_

* * *

**He didn't know what he would do if his father started talking about baby names even one more time –** and who the fuck said they wanted to name their children either Giotto or Ieyasu?

Who the hell said it would be boys? That they would be skies?

Xanxus just stood up and left.

He had a bottle of the finest Russian Vodka waiting for him.

* * *

_**He didn't care at all.**_

_(… not even when she seemed paler by the day, when rings beneath her eyes became darker and the bones of her wrists stood out more and more. Not even when Shamal seemed to be in a permanent state of worry, and their appointments became longer and more frequent._

_It wasn't as if it mattered to him what happened with her or the brat she carried._

_He had done his duty. Let the one who was so eager to bow to their fucking father's deal with the rest._

_He was done._

_He certainly wasn't counting how many times Shamal came unannounced.)_

* * *

**The Cosa Nostra was talking.**

They were always talking. Noisy gossips. But this time, it made Xanxus see red.

They were talking about the brats, about his brats.

And then he heard the first of many threats – and it made his blood boil over. Red overtook his vision, and once he could see again, it had also painted his hands.

No one took what was his.

* * *

_**He didn't care at all.**_

_(… that she didn't look six months pregnant with twins, as she should. That her flames, flames he had become irritatingly familiar with, seemed to dim day by day, as if slowly snuffed out. He couldn't care less if she cried herself to sleep at night, or if her eyes seemed hopeless._

_He was an assassin. He dealt in death._

_So what if she looked as if she was on deaths door, and would welcome it?_

_Everyone fucking died._

… _the thought didn't hurt him.)_

* * *

**He didn't care at all.**

Until he did.

Until she collapsed at another dreaded dinner with their fathers', her dress drenched from one moment to the next in water, water that was steadily turning red …

He was beside her, holding her, before he even understood what was happening.

Timoteo's and Iemitsu's frantic voices sounded above them, asking useless questions and shouting for Shamal, for any damn medic available, but Xanxus … he could only look at Tsuna's drawn and pale face, at the shine of sweat coating that cool skin. Her large brown eyes slowly blinked up at him, trying to focus.

" Don't do anything, trash; the doctor trash is on his way."

She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, her whole body went stiff and an unholy shriek left her lips, alarming everyone. He tried to hold her down as she trembled weakly in his grasp, and was unprepared for the tiny hand that suddenly laid on his thigh – before long sharp nails bored into his skin.

If he had been anyone else, he would have yelped in pain.

Instead, his eyes immediately returned to her face, and he was taken aback by the glare she focused on him.

(… taken aback and turned on …)

" You listen, you-you worthless piece of shit for a husband", she gasped, pain painting her features as she gripped his thigh harder. " My b-babies will l-live … a-and you – ah! - you will f-fuck-fucking take care of them … they – oh fuck, fuck, fuck! I hate you! - they co-come before me."

It took him a moment to understand, but once he did …

He stared down at the woman in his arms, who was threatening him to let her die if the choice came between her and her children, or else.

Their children.

" Look i-in my d-dresser."

He was still frozen.

" Use-useless h-husband."

His heart nearly stopped as her hand dropped.

Her eyes closed, and for the first time in years, Xanxus di Vongola felt panic.

What the fuck was happening?

* * *

**Premature labour. **Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes.

Shamal had explained what was happening, but really, all Xanxus had taken from it was that they had to deliver the twins now, or both mother and children would suffer consequences, and that while not optimal, the children were viable at eight months gestation.

All he could do was to walk circles into the floor, confined outside the hospital wing while Shamal and the nurses tried to save his family … his fucking family.

He felt such rage – at the world, at his family, at Tsuna – but most of all, at himself.

Xanxus stopped and leaned back against the wall, forcing himself to stand still as he tried to compose himself.

He knew that everyone was watching him like hawks, that even his own guardians didn't know how to approach him, but at the moment, he couldn't give a single fuck. He didn't even know how he felt about his wife, his children, didn't know what to make of the tangled mess that ensnared his heart and mind, but …

All that mattered were the three persons treated behind those double doors he was forbidden to enter.

Fuck.

Fuck!

* * *

**A cry cut through the silence.**

Xanxus immediately jumped to his feet, eyes wide. Was that …?

And just a few minutes later, a much fainter second cry followed.

Two cries.

Two babies.

Alive.

* * *

**The doors opened.**

Immediately, everyone stood up and most were halfway towards them before Shamal had even halfway emerged. He looked tired, and his coat was steeped in blood.

But …

But Xanxus couldn't focus on him. All he could focus on where the two bundles, one blue, one pink, that two nurses carefully carried behind the doctor.

" Please, everyone, calm. We don't want to wake the children."

Like a spell, silence reigned.

Xanxus was still speechless as he continued forward until he stood next to Shamal.

" Xanxus, may I present your first-born, a baby boy, 16 inches and 3 and a half pounds with a healthy set of lungs on him."

Xanxus was frozen as the first nurse moved before him, gently presenting the blue wrapped bundle to him.

" And your second-born, a baby girl, measuring 15,7 inches and weighing 3 pounds."

The second nurse joined them, positioning the pink bundle so that he could see …

His children. His babies.

He stared at those perfect little faces, at the strong chin they had gotten from him, the delicate features that definitely belonged to their mother – the girl had Tsuna's lips, while he could definitely recognize his own on his son.

His son.

His daughter.

He was completely overwhelmed.

" Shamal, how is Tsuna?"

And with just one question, the air seemed to freeze.

Xanxus heart lurched as he saw the dark pitying look in the doctor's eyes.

And the next words would echo in his ears, replaying in his nightmares until his dying day.

" I'm sorry to inform you that the complications were more severe than we assumed. She is in critical condition. I don't know if she will wake up."

* * *

**Nearly four years.**

For nearly four years, they had been married. And looking back at it now, Xanxus just wanted to curse himself for being such a fucking fool. Hell, maybe he had been an even greater fool than Iemitsu and his father …

People who, if he hadn't been aware of their true motives, maybe he would even feel grateful to. Indebted. Because, fuck it all, it was their greed and irresponsibility that had brought them together, and Xanxus, despite the more than overwhelming evidence to the opposite, was in fact capable of non-violent positive emotions … the moment Shamal had given them the news about Tsuna, about his wife, it had felt as if his world was about to end.

It still felt like it.

He could try to lie as much as he wanted, it didn't change reality.

In the nearly four years they had been married, Xanxus di Vongola had started to fall in love with Tsunayuki di Vongola nee Sawada.

He had been a monumental ass to her.

A blind and deaf fool.

The crappiest husband in history – ah, no, that still belonged to Iemitsu.

Nevertheless ...

To the point?

He didn't fucking deserve her.

But like everything you regret, that regret came in hindsight. And now he sat at his wife's silent bedside, their five-week old children in their basinet next to them, for once peacefully asleep, and the only sound in the whole room was the steady beeping of the heart monitor.

It was the only evidence that she was merely asleep, not dead.

That goddamn, beautiful beeping.

Beep. Beep.

She looked so beautiful, even as sick as she had been. The premature birth had caused an infection, and it had taken three weeks for the fever to break – her useless father hadn't even known that she was allergic to the antibiotics, and it had caused her body to go into shock. They had managed to react in time, but the fear still sat in his bones.

The fear of that long loud single beep as her heart flat lined.

He hadn't been able to leave her side for long, the fear for his wife made his company unbearable. Even Squalo, who didn't particularly care for Tsuna, had told him to continue his vigil at her bedside and to take care of his children – he was next to useless to the Varia, as he was at the time, full of tension, rage and regret.

Now?

Only regret and fear remained.

He wanted her back.

He hadn't even been able to name their children; they were still baby boy and baby girl.

But …

After all the shit he had put Tsuna through, she deserved the honour to name them. Xanxus had already taken enough for granted, had tortured her enough for imagined sleights …

The letter he had found in her dresser sat heavy in his pocket.

_**Dear Xanxus-san,**_

_Well, if you are reading this letter, than that means that my fears have turned into reality and I won't be able to take care of our children. And yes, our children, no matter how much of an ass you are, they are your children too. And that is the whole point of this letter._

_I really thought that we had started to mean something to each other – if I can take my mother's word for it, than it seems very obvious that I'm falling in love with you. And the fucked up thing is, even after all this, after how cruel you were in the last few months, after the hateful way you treated your children and me, I can't help but still have feelings for you._

_To hell with it all, I think I am in love with you._

_But rest assured, husband mine, that doesn't mean shit, because the only thing that matters now is that our babies are taken care of. I don't know why you decided to revert back to your asshole days, or why you appear to dislike the idea of children, but I always wanted to have them, and to have them with you – well, you are my husband and I'm falling for you, it doesn't seem like a hardship at all. After all, you are the only man I want children with._

_But that doesn't give you the right to behave as you have, and I won't accept it. Being dead doesn't give me many options, but I think I have learned where it will hurt you and our fathers the most:_

_I have many copies of quiet incriminating documents, placed in safe storages, which will go out if certain people determine that you are in any way mistreating our children. This means keep our children safe, healthy and happy, or the Vongola, Varia and a lot of your allies will go down in flames – because not only will those documents go to various governmental organisation that want you gone, they will also go to rival Famiglia's that will stop at nothing to seek revenge._

_Don't take it personal, Xanxus, my heart and body are yours, but everything I am belongs, first and foremost, to our children._

_No hard feelings._

_Tell them I love them, no matter when, no matter where, their Kaa-chan loves them._

_With love, your Tsunayuki._

* * *

**Beep. Beep.**

Her heartbeat settled the fear in his own heart.

Beep. Beep.

It wasn't the only heartbeat that meant the world to him.

Next to the letter that changed so many things, he had found the ultrasound pictures of her pregnancy, which he had already seen before, having bribed Shamal, and an USB drive. And on that drive were the first documented heartbeats of his children.

He couldn't get enough of them.

Beep. Beep.

That letter had certainly changed everything – no, that was wrong. It hadn't changed everything; the ones who did this were his baby boy and baby girl. No, it had put matters into perspective, giving him insights he hadn't before and a way to realize his own emotions.

He wasn't in love with Tsuna, not really, but he was clearly falling in love with her, and honestly, since that day that he had seen that resentment in her eyes as they unwillingly spoke their vows, they had been on the route to this day; the day that love grew between them like a wild flower, ensnaring them both slowly but surely. He had been just too much of an asshole to recognize and acknowledge it.

But looking back, there were so many instances where her actions, her words, her decisions – where she had made something in him just … it was like a fire, a wild dancing fire that couldn't be tamed. She had never been fake, she hadn't been the puppet he had called her during her pregnancy – she …

Xanxus bit his lips, growling softly beneath his breath as he felt his eyes burn. Xanxus di Vongola did not cry!

Not even … not even when it broke his heart that he had ridiculed a woman who loved him enough, despite his numerous flaws and dirty bloodline, that she truly wanted his children – and only his.

She wanted him.

And it broke him.

Beep. Beep.

He had been such a damn fool!

* * *

_**She could smile all she wanted, **__softly giggling behind her dainty hand, but him, she couldn't fool._

_Her eyes flashed in silent fury whenever her father spoke._

_He could read the promise in them._

_'Your time will come.'_

* * *

**Beep. Beep.**

* * *

_**A subtle comment on moment, **__combined with big innocent eyes there, a clueless question here, and suddenly the object of her ire was punished for an entirely different transgression than the one that had awoken her fury – minor, but her inquiries, her soft whisperings had pushed it up into something major._

_And nothing that could be linked in any way to her._

_She was, after all, just civilian-born._

* * *

**Beep. Beep.**

* * *

_**He had been drunk and wanted sex. **__No woman had ever said no to him, they had always begged for more. His fucking wife shouldn't be any different._

_The first time, she said no._

_The second time, just moments after that no had stunned him, she did more._

_She punched him square in the nose._

_(He slept on the couch for a whole damn week. His fucking back hurt.)_

* * *

**Beep. Beep.**

So many memories, so many instances when she had proven just what kind of bitch his wife could be. And he had discarded them in a moment of rage, had let his own insecurities affect his judgement and made one of the greatest mistakes of his life.

He would give it all to get a chance to make it up to her.

" Please, Tsuna, if you can hear me", he murmured into her hair. " Please, wake up. I need you. Our children need you. Please, for us, wake up. Baby girl and baby boy need you, and your useless shitty husband does too. Wake up."

Beep. Beep.

* * *

_**Wake up. **__Please, Tsuna, wake up._

* * *

" **She has woken up."**

* * *

**Xanxus stood in the doorway to his wife's room,** red irises glued to her sitting figure. His eyes took her in, the way her eyelids were dropping, the fatigue in her features, and he wanted nothing more than to fucking wrap her up and hide her away.

She was awake. She was finally awake.

After nine weeks, he had started to doubt it.

Leaving the door, he walked in, and their eyes met.

He didn't know what she saw in his eyes, but his heart swelled with relief and regret as her eyes softened into that familiar warm gaze that she had only ever given him.

Maybe they could work it out. Because for once, only this once, Xanxus di Vongola would bow down and admit his mistakes. Only for her, he would grovel.

Please …

" You fucking idiot didn't even name our children?!"

His lips stretched into a grin as his laughter echoed through the room before he silenced her with a kiss.

That was his fucking woman.

Damn, yes!

* * *

**At six months, the twins had proven that they had inherited the very best of their parents **– they were unholy terrors.

Xanxus moaned silently as his father kept drowning on about this or that – honestly, he couldn't give a damn. All he wanted was his bed, and his sexy wife. Well, and his children, provided they let Mama and Papa have some alone time.

" Xanxus, are you even listening to me?"

He just gave the old fart the stink eye and leaned back.

" Really, Xanxus, I understand that having children is exhausting -"

A phone rang.

The room went silent.

Two thumps, just slightly out of each other's rhythm, sounded, and Xanxus automatically answered.

" Tsuna."

" Husband, you are needed, urgently."

Xanxus rose both eyebrows but nevertheless stood up as panic slowly settled in. He ignored his father's demands to know what was happening as he hurried out and to his car.

" Is something wrong with the children? Alexandro? Maria? Are you okay, wife?"

The resounding giggle brought him to a halt before he could even start the car.

" Yes, husband, we are fine. But I have drafted your shark on baby sitter duty, so hurry the fuck up, would you?", she whispered, and his blood started to boil in want; she always got him turned on when she cursed. " I have needs, too, husband, and you have been very neglectful."

Without answering, he stepped on the gas.

He had a woman to teach a lesson.

~ The End. ~


End file.
